5 days in Iceland during winter - Day 1...

DAY 0

We bought our tickets about a month ago, to support the Iceland economy ;-) haha. Well they had a crash of their stockmarket and suddenly, travelling to Iceland became very cheap. Geertje did all the research, she planned and figured out where we had to go, what we had to see... As you will find out later... this was not the case...

We flew by icelandair and departed in holland, amsterdam... so we still had to get there first... I usually drive there and leave my car in the parking, but this time, we thought: "why don't we take te train?" we wouldn't have to worry about traffic... Well you all know how traffic in holland is... it's nightmare.. we would know exactly what time we would arrive... NOT

indeed, we departed with the train, expected travell time 2h50... In my perception direct trains brussels-amsterdam existed and were the only possiblity... NOT we departed in Leuven, had to switch train in Mechelen, then on this train it was announced that this train would not go further then Roosendaal... so switch again... last time we thought... NOT At rotterdam, the train was stopped, and a new announcement told us that there had been an accident, so the track was closed, we had to switch train again, and again... well making it short... 5 trains... and more then 4 hours later... we were at the airport...

on the plane…

We all had personal video screens on the plane, controlled by touch screens.

It offered some movies, music and some documentary stories about Iceland…

I started looking at them and thinking mmm… I wanna see this and this and that and….

But… suddenly I found something else… a movie called “Heimat” made by Sigur Ros, a band from Iceland, that organized concerts all over the island after conquering the world… free concerts

here my journey started…

Watching the movie I took some paper and a pencil and… I started planning…

and wrote down the names of the places

and said....

I wanna go there....

and there....

and there...

and there....

I wanna see that

and that

I took the map and planned how to get there…

We had a hotel for 5 days in Reykjavik, obviously… we were not going to stay there… Impossible!!

I decided to go to the west, as far as we could, look for a place to sleep there and return the following day, and then again… go to the north… find a place to sleep and come back…

So when we finally arrived at the international airport of Iceland, the plans were finished…

We arrived, went for our car, I reserved a 4X4, I doubted for a while at home, perhaps we would not need that, since people told me that the roads were kept snow and ice free… but since you don’t go to Iceland everyday… and as you will find out later, it was very good decision… no way we could have followed the same ways we did now…

we got our car(Nissan Xtrail), great car, equipped with snow tires (nails), mmm…. I love these tires!! I had to get used to the automatic gear, but that was ok, I had more problems getting used to my own car when back…

Obviously... some people were driving bigger cars...

Since the airport was about 50km from Reykjavik we stopped for a swim in the blue lagoon… mmm…



DO NOT skip this!! Up to 41° natural heated lake, with a deep blue color… Wonderful! Then we drove to the hotel and found it fairly easy… Hotel was ok, but little did we know at that time how much we would use it…

DAY 1

we got up in the morning very early, still dark, because we were not interested in Reykjavik

and wanted to drive a few hours so we got the sun rise when we arrived at the more interesting spots

for starters the weather was not too good, some fog, some rain… but we didn't care

it was actually not too cold, about 4°sometimes more, sometimes less tell you later…

well... as soon as daylight appeared we found ourselves in the most amazing landscapes. And what was interesting about it, was that driving 20 km on, the landscape often totally changed…




We drove in black lava deserts, green moss fields, covering rocks and stones as far as we could see.







We stopped the car often to make some pictures.

Then at a certain moment we were driving direction a glacier... we saw close by, a beautiful waterfall (iceland has 22000 waterfalls)… so I drove towards that and it's was raining a little bit, nothing to worry about… we got out and there was a very strong wind, walked to the waterfall, we were the only one…

we started to make pics and admire the waterfall and we didn't notice that it started to rain REAL hard, there was a lot of wind and we were so closeby , so it could as well be the water from the waterfall… in the end... we were soaked.... when we arrived back at our car. I got rid of my drowned pants, put on a new pair, fortunately... we packed some clothes, because we were going to stay one night elsewhere and come back... everything was soaking wet… pants, coat, shoes…

we drove on... good start! :-)

but little by little it got better, and we even started to see the sun and blue sky

well that's Iceland you drive 20km and you have different weather, and different landscape and sometimes the temperature goes from -4 to +4 in 20 km

anyway... we stopped at a certain moment, as planned, we were going to see another waterfall

a beautiful one but we had to walk 1.4km up on the mountain, so we parked, we were the only one... getting used to that… lol

we started to walk

at a certain moment we arrived at a cross road and according to the signs we had to decide, two possible ways to get there, we took the shortest.... Both had to cross the river.

but then... we arrived at the river and …

there was no bridge... oh there was a bridge… but he wasn’t where he was supposed to be… floating against the side of the river…

no bridge... so.... decision again

or... we cross the river or we walk back and take the other path, so...

we crossed the river

we undressed, I don’t have to mention that water came directly from the glacier…

Shoes in my hands, pants, backpack, I wade across the river to the other side… COLD!!!

anyway... some time later, we arrived, quite slippery,

at the waterfall, there was ice everywhere…

The waterfall was beautiful… worthwhile the cold…

we went back to the car and we thought about trying the other path… again, no bridge… the bridge was apart, in pieces laying on our side…

I undressed again and tried to cross the river… but… mmm… water was deeper, wilder… and I fell… almost…. Not a good idea… what to do, what to do… going back and crossing the river again or trying to cross here… and suddenly we saw a couple of steel profiles, parts of the bridge and we started to build a bridge… we crossed the river






and walked down the mountain…

all went well from then on and we arrived at the car

dry again ;) we drove further

Wintertime in Iceland is different… not many tourists, not many people in general, you drive alone on the road… very little hotels, very little restaurants, we often ate a hamburger at a petrol station.. Guess it’s the national lunch… The petrol stations are often the only shop open.

Well you should know that Iceland has 300.000 inhabitants and 60% lives in Reykjavik. Then there are still some important cities... The villages are thus very small, sometimes only 5 houses and a church....

Looking for a place to sleep was real quest.but we did found some lovely ones...

But after lunch we drove further and the sun was there, the sky was blue at times...



We passed some more waterfalls...



and the mountains were beautiful....





at a certain point, clouds came back and we crossed a black lava sand dessert...




we were driving, and wishing for a third, forth, fifth eye...

suddenly we saw a glacier at our left hand side... if you have a 4X4 you should use it... so I drove from the road, direction glacier... Looked like an old one, with lots of stone and gravel on top. Well the glaciers seem to hold the light longer, because it was getting dark little by little and we could see them from the light reflection they made against the clouds... At the glacier, there was a sign: "two german boys, Thomas and Christian went for a walk here and we never seen them back"...



a little bit further we had a new opportunity to visit a gletsjer... in fact we went there to see the icebergs in the lake...



but after a short while we spotted something unexpected in the water...



many seals were playing and observing us...





it was getting dark now and we went looking for a bed... Unlike we expected, there's enough light during februari in Iceland Sun rises around 8.30 which is quite late, but it stays longer... my seals and icebergs were photographed at 20.15... Still enough light.

Guided by lonely planet we stopped at a hostel... we rang the bell and I said to the lady who opened the door: "hello, we are looking for a bed, do you have anything available?" While she stayed in the doorway, leaving us outside, she pondered upon the question. It was really strange and didn't give us a good feeling... first she mentioned sleeping bags, we had non. but then we could get blackets and sheets, I asked for the price, and again there was a moment of silence and then there was the price... Later I realized that the prize was quite normal, but at that time... I was not aware of the exchange rates, it was only the first day, lol... anyway, we told the lady, we still had to go but we might come back... and off we were...
We found a new one, driving 15 minutes further, and we immediatly felt at home... There was soup for diner, with lamb, one of icelands national dishes. And after diner we went back to the glacier, hoping to catch a glimp of the aurora borealis... Unfortunately, it's not a daily event, rather rare...
and there at the feet of the glacier... I got the idea of not going back to reykjavik the next day, but instead drive around Iceland... IF POSSIBLE??... we would ask the landlady in the morning.
we went back and had a good sleep...

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